Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
He wrapped both of his around her shoulders and held her close.
He looked over her head at George.
George’s expression was a study of concern and relief, more the latter than the former.
Much more.
George nodded to him.
Harry nodded back.
FORTY-NINE
Think About It
Harry
It was dark.
The paperwork was done.
The nightshift was on.
The world was still spinning.
That was when she came.
Harry had already powered down and closed up, and he was pulling on his jacket, ready to head home to Lillian, when Karen appeared in his door.
They’d already had a discussion. She was on paid leave until the shooting was investigated, and until a counselor said she was good, after taking a man’s life, to get back to work with a gun on her hip.
She’d been calm when they’d talked, accepting, and she’d handed over her weapon without demur.
Harry tried, but he couldn’t read if she had a problem with what she had to do.
She seemed to be…just Karen.
“You’d take a hit so she had answers, Harry,” she stated. “I know you.”
“Karen—”
“I’ll do the downtime. I’ll do the counseling. But I can already tell you, I won’t lose sleep for taking him out.”
Harry regarded her thoroughly.
“It isn’t what he did to women,” she continued. “It wasn’t all the shit he did. I wasn’t playing judge and executioner. The reason why you couldn’t be involved is the reason why you didn’t take that shot. You wanted answers for Lillian, and you’d do anything to get them for her. You wanted him alive. I wasn’t about to let you get dead so she’d know all that happened to her parents. In the end, those answers don’t matter. What matters is, she knows who took them away, and he’s paid. And what matters even more is, you’re going home to her right now.”
Suddenly, he was reminded of the conversation he’d had with Megan.
“I’m running unopposed,” he told her something she knew.
“I know,” she confirmed she knew.
“Fresh perspectives after this term, Karen,” he stated. “If one of my investigators becomes sheriff, there’ll be an opening for an investigator, so I can go back to doing that.”
Her eyes widened in shock.
Harry walked the two steps to her and stopped.
“To do this job, you have to make tough decisions every day, carry them through, and be able to live with them,” he said. “Rus has had enough stress in his life, he won’t run. Think about it.”
With that, he cuffed her on the arm.
And then he walked out of his office to get home to Lillian.
FIFTY
The Rundown
Lillian
There was a lot to go over.
So here’s the rundown:
We’ll start with Willie.
Harry was right, he was going to see a lot of prison time in a lot of different prisons.
First, he was tried for so much stuff in Seattle, I lost track of all the charges (though, I did that because I wasn’t really keeping track in the first place).
Even though Rita got him a high-priced attorney, he was found guilty.
For all of it.
He was then extradited to Fret County, and the same thing happened.
After that, he was extradited to Vancouver, and yep, you guessed it, the same thing happened.
So he’d start in federal prison, and when he was done with his sentence there, he’d do time in a state prison, and after that, he’d head up to Canada.
By the time he finally served all of his sentences, even if he was granted early parole along the way, Willie would be in his fifties.
I thought I should feel badly for him or at least feel something.
I just didn’t.
Surprising everyone, the Monday after Karl Abernathy was gunned down on Main Street, Albert Tremblay came into the station and confessed to shooting his neighbor, Terence Dinklage.
Harry told me he suspected Tremblay got antsy, knowing there’d been a case audit, and after Sean started asking questions, then the Dietrichs were arrested, and Karl was shot dead, Harry deduced Tremblay saw the writing on the wall, and he was next.
Tremblay had no idea they didn’t have enough to pursue.
Time in the pokey before he got bail, and perhaps his attorney sharing his fees, made Tremblay rethink things and he recanted.
It was too late.
They had his confession. They had his gun. They had the ongoing dispute and argument earlier that day, which was witnessed by Dinklage’s wife and was reportedly heated. And they had witness after witness testifying about Tremblay’s animosity to Dinklage, with two of them sharing Tremblay had stated, “I should just shoot the sumabitch and be done with it.”
He was found guilty by a jury of his peers.
His wife sold the house.
And word was, the Dinklages got on with their new neighbors splendidly.
Leland Dern didn’t fare too well in the courts either.
After two of his former deputies testified he’d ordered them to harass women (and one woman’s ex-husband) who were not accepting his advances, he was found guilty of three counts of criminal stalking, fined fifteen thousand dollars, and he did another three months in prison.